A federal judge in Seattle has given class-action status to a lawsuit
filed against a Spokane-based collection company.

The action means as many as 140,000 people around the state could be eligible
for refunds from the company if it is found guilty of wrongdoing.
The lawsuit accuses the company of charging excess fees - a violation
of state and federal law - to people who didn't pay their parking tickets.

Plaintiffs' attorney
Harish Bharti said people all over the state have been unfairly billed
collection fees by the company. He didn't know how many are from the Spokane
area.

The lawsuit says Ticket
Track serves as the collection agent for parking lot companies that own
or operate 11 parking lots in the Seattle area.

People who did not
pay their parking tickets were contacted by Ticket Track and asked to
pay the amount of the original tickets plus a $30 collection fee, the
lawsuit said.

Bharti said as many
as 140,000 people were asked to pay the collection fee.

``It is an illegal
charge the defendants are well aware of,'' Bharti said Wednesday. ``Anybody
in this business engaged in this kind of behavior should be shut down
entirely.''

Bharti recently represented
four Seattle plaintiffs in a class-action suit that resulted in Diamond
Parking agreeing to pay $2 million to people who were subjected to additional
collection fees.

The president and
owner of Ticket Track denied the allegations against his company, saying
it has never charged add-on collection fees.

``As Mr. Bharti is
well aware, the facts in this case are in no way similar to the facts
in the Diamond case,'' Craig Bagdon said. ``Ticket Track has never added
collection charges to the debts referred to it.''

Bagdon went on to
criticize Bharti for ``trying this case in the press. Ticket Track will
vigorously defend itself against these spurious claims in a court of law,''
he said.

Diamond Parking and
Drico Recovery Services, a collection agency, were sued on behalf of more
than 50,000 residents statewide who were charged a collection fee on top
of outstanding parking tickets.

Diamond and Drico
were found to have tacked on 57,000 additional parking fines from Oct.
23, 1997, to May 31, 2002, according to the lawsuit.

The settlement was
reached in October, and attorneys sent notices to those who paid the collection
fees. The final agreement called for $1.8million to be refunded to consumers
and $330,000 in attorneys fees.

Members of the class-action
suit against Diamond must submit claims by April.

Refunds in the Diamond
case are expected to be issued in July. For more information, contact
Bharti's office at (206) 706-6400 or bharti@lawyer.com.